Lady on cross country trek on solar bike stops in Clarion

German-born Hanna Elshoff is a spry lady of 73 who has a fascinating story to tell, and she’s telling it while also thanking Americans and raising money for a good cause. She made a stop in Clarion last Wednesday as part of her multi-state tour on a solar-powered bike named Elf.

“I thought that someday I would do this, when I’m footloose and fancy free,” said the colorful Elshoff. “I took to heart something I heard about ‘Follow your Dream’, and decided that by age 75 I could do this.”

Elshoff was born in 1942 in Hamburg, which is in northern Germany. She spoke to a crowd of Clarion Lions Club members on Wednesday. Elshoff told them that she feels that American soldiers put their life on the line for her and many other citizens during the time of World War II. She was an infant during the war.  Her family was spared because even though they were not Jewish her father later would learn that, because they were members of a Lutheran church, they were soon to be loaded on a truck and possibly taken to a concentration camp, if not worse.

Read the full article in the May 14 edition of the WCM.